For Honor: Blackstone

Part 4: The Duel

(I'm back, sorry for the long wait I know I said I'd upload it the day after the last one but uh... FAKE NEWS!, anyways M'rissi is awesome, I have an idea for a story about her as well that I'll probably do, after I'm finished this of course, now onto plot:)

(Arthur's pov)
Apollyon's reaction startled me, I had expected her to be....less pleased, she stood up slowly.

"There are sheep, hiding among wolves everywhere, cowards, plagueing our cities and fortresses." She says sounding genuinely saddened, turning away from me and facing the floor. "Parasites...." she added,pausing before spinning around to face me, "There is no medicine for this disease....no it must be amputated, and even my legion, it seems, is in need of a surgeon", (did they call them surgeons in medieval times? Whatever it works) I sat there in awe of her, she suddenly seemed so...inspiring, her tone demanded my undivided attention. "So what say you, Arthur? Do you want to help me cure this world of that which ails it?" She says reaching her hand out to me. 'I do, I want to rid the world of all the cowards who would extort the weak, and abandon their people in their hours of need' I thought, unable to speak aloud, she had left me speechless.

Looking up at her, I simply took her hand, and she pull me up to her, shaking my hand and nodding at me. "Good. Then suit up, your prey is waiting" she says letting go of my hand and handing me my dented helmet before leaving the room. And so I scramble to put on my armor as quickley as possible, taking at least twenty minutes, before grabbing my sword, holding by the blade to my waist and leaving the room. I opened the door and was immediatley blinded by the sun, after a moment, I recover my sight and see that I'm inside the walls of what I assume to be the Blackstone's main fortress,(Its "The Shard"), I look to my right to see a large crowd of Blackstone soldiers in a large "courtyard" (not really a courtyard but you know what I mean, heres a visual aid)

With Apollyon standing infront of them at the end of the walkway leading up to it. They all look to me expectingly, and I hurry towards them, walking up to Apollyon.

I stop hesitantly in front of her, and she steps to my right, and wraps her arm around me, touching my left shoulder, causing me to feel nervous, not in fear, but, in a sort of embarressment, blushing slightly underneath my helm as I felt the eyes of all on me. We move foward into the crowd as the men make way for us, "You came here with a purpose...a goal, similiar to my own" She says to me as we move through the crowd, revealing a circle has been formed around the center of the "courtyard" (if someone has a correction I'd appreciate it) a makeshift arena. "And who am I to stand in your way" she finishes, backing away from me at the edge of the circle, that blood coated Lawbringer waiting at the opposite end. Sudden anger fills me as I lock eyes with him, holding his poleaxe to his right, the audience began murmuring words of encouragement to Thatch, and insults to me, "Kill him" "he is weak" " get 'em Thatch" " weak" "traitor" (cause he's wearing Daubany's colours) " break him", they suddenly break into a cheer as Thatch steps foward holding his arms in the air and spinning before going into his right stance. I turn to look for Apollyon, and see her standing behind me in silence, her eyes firmly planted on me, ' She expects me to win, while everyone else is certain I'll lose' I thought to myself, turning to face Thatch again 'I won't dissapoint her' I thought as I lifted my longsword and moved my feet into my right stance, thus beginning, the duel, (roll credits) we began moving in a counter clockwise circle both of us waiting for the other to make a move, I was still a little dazed from our previous encounter, and couldn't afford any wrong moves. 'He'll try to take advantage of it and hit me in the head again to stun me before going for the killing chop' I needed him to press the attack first, I step foward into a quick light attack, missing completely as I made no attempt to close the distance, as expected Thatch attempts to take advantage with a heavy charge, trying to push me the the shaft of his poleaxe, I backstep out of his attacks ranges and he aggresively pushes foward, transitioning into a heavy spin attack, I sidestep to the right just barely avoiding the spike of his weapon as it swings past me, his attack throws him off balance and I take advantage by moving in behind him, slashing at the back of his unarmored knee, the deep slice causes him to fall to his knees, nearly dropping his weapon, the crowd goes completely silent as he falls down, he quickly spins around attempting to swing the blade of his poleaxe towards me, I backstep to avoid the swing, and quickly grip my sword by the blade, with a powerful overhead swing, I plant the guard of my sword in the space between his helmet and his left pauldron, it manages to break through the chainmail, and embed it self into his flesh.

Blood oozes from his visor as he drowns in his own blood, I place a boot on his breastplate and yanked my sword from him, his heavy armor smashes loudly into the stone, followed by total silence, I look around at the once enthusiastic crowd, now in shock, 'What the hell made them think so highly of Thatch, why are they so suprised?' I wondered, taking notice off a warden in the crowd silently hand over a bag of gold to another beside him, who seemed pleased at the result ' at least he's got my back' I turn in search of Apollyon, who also seems pleased with me, which made me smile, I felt proud as she approached me

"Well done...Blackstone"
And those words filled me with joy, and pride. I look past the Warlord at a banner waving in the wind....Blackstone...that felt...so right...

(Again sorry for the long wait on a kinda shitty chapter, I planned to make it longer but I felt like I needed to get this out already, hopefully future updates don't take as long.)